February 1, 2024 - February 29, 2024, All Day
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A portion of Rabbi Musnitsky’s January 26 Shabbat Message explaining our support for OneFamily:
Dear Congregants,
The stories coming out of Israel are filled with triumphs and miracles but all too often the narratives are filled with unimaginable pain and suffering. For those of us thousands of miles away, our hearts break and our helplessness endures. This is our extended family and time, and weariness cannot blur our vision and commitment to our people and our homeland.
Thus it is imperative for us as a Congregational community to engage ourselves in work that can truly make a difference in the lives of others. We have found one such inspirational program that will allow us to “adopt” an individual and family devastated by the war and offer them financial help to ease their inconceivable burdens. Our financial support will help with physical and psychological therapies as well as the medical equipment and structural modifications to their home which is not covered by government subsidies.
OneFamily exists to bring restoration and hope to the victims of terror in Israel. We have supported this organization for more than 15 years as a Synagogue family and are now taking the extraordinary step to raise $10,000 to help rehabilitate Yona, an IDF soldier, and his family. Yona’s family is now ours. Allow me to tell you a bit about him.
Yona was injured in the first hours of the war in Kfar Aza. As he went into hand-to-hand combat to rescue civilian hostages, his small IDF group was ambushed by 50 terrorists. As the only fighting medic, he went out to save his commander and best friend. Both died and Yona took 11 bullets to his head back and legs. It took more than 3 hours to evacuate him to a hospital where he remains in ICU having lost a leg and many cognitive abilities.
This next week, my husband Ron and I will be traveling to Israel for a 2 week volunteer mission where we will meet Yona and introduce him and his family to Temple Har Shalom sharing the extraordinary news of our “adoption” and commitment to assist him on his journey to renewed well-being.
Should you wish to be a part of this great mitzvah, and help our community reach the full goal of raising $10,000 to support Yona, please offer your tzedakah here.
How fortunate we are to be able to make such a difference in Yona’s life!
Rabbi Randi Musnitsky, D. Min.
